Swarm

Two of the barn hives swarmed in the afternoon yesterday.   I first saw a small swarm on an apple tree when I got home & started to get ready to collect it when it flew. I think it was a swarm from the hive in the swarm trap that was sitting in the barn, because it wasn't very large, and it looked like they may have even gone back into it as they were all around it. Shortly afterwards Theresa saw a swarm in a wild plum tree where they have landed before. This was considerably larger and because of the reduction of activity today in the Langstroth hive by the barn, it probably came from there. This hive was from a cut out I did on the barn wall last year right after they moved in..

 They collected up above the higher ladder first. I didn't get the queen and they left the box and reformed lower down to the right.

Dropped a few on the way down.

 I carried it down and shook them into the box. This time I got the queen inside and the rest followed.

I then moved the hive about a half mile away so that the workers wouldn't be tempted to drift back to the original hive. In a couple of weeks  I may bring it back. There were a lot of bees. When I lifted the inner cover to add several frames, it was pretty heavy. 

Honey house

After having bee stuff stored on the porch, in the basement, in the barn, and in in several other places in the house, at last everything will have a a place to go. With the cut outs & swarms, I'm up to ten hives now this year. We harvested from only three, but got 15 gallons of honey from four supers and a deep. Next year should be even better and if nothing else a whole lot easier. I still have to wire it with outlets and hang some salvaged light fixtures, and add something better than a hose for the water line,  I'll tap into the overhead line from the house to the barn, at the pole about 15 feet to the right of the shed. Then racks for frames, a work bench & some shelves.

10' x 20'

Some of the frames were light colored, some really dark. I just let them mix. The honey is much darker than last year

A nice swarm from Canby

I got a call about 5pm today asking if I wanted a swarm. Seems it was about five feet off the ground and described as the size of a basketball. We got there about six and it had settled in with very few bees flying. It had formed about a half hour before I got the call. I pulled all but four frames out of the box to make room for them. They slid around, but I was able to hold them with my left hand as I shook the tree and got the majority of them in the box. My first swarm away from home.

 A nice size swarm! It half filled the 10 frame deep.

 Eventually they all crawled in to join the queen.

The house swarms! and then this years nuc! Free bees!

Monday the house hive swarmed. 

We saw them just as they gathered together. 

16' up

                                               

I made 3 trips up the ladder.

I didn't count all of them, but it seemed like a lot of bees at the time. Probably half the size of the barn wall swarm last year that I was sorry I didn't have the knowledge or equipment to catch and hive them. That's what got me into bee keeping. Joined the club, took the class, and read everything I could all winter. Now I'm at the stage where I'm really good at thinking I know what I'm doing, and then when I go into the hive, I realize I don't really. In any case, somehow I fumbled around and managed to get them into a deep, while squishing numerous bees when the box slipped out of my hand, the queen somehow survived my assault and decided to stay. Lesson #1: Using an extra box to shake them into doesn't work well with a swarm. They just want to climb up into it.

While I was starting to write this today, the nuc-hive swarmed.

A couple of days ago when the rain stopped.

Just like the other swarm, we watched them starting to clump up.

 Guess I was feeding them too much & not keeping a close eye inside. I installed it about eight weeks ago, and thought it was to soon & they would freeze, but they made it.  However, I am pleased that they did swarm. One more free hive.. They all landed in a small plum tree about 8” up.

 In the meantime, I scrambled around making up 10 wired frames of foundation for this hive. The last swarm I made 8 top bars and 2 foundation & leveled it really well because I’m hoping they may want to make small cells as they are feral and the hive has been active for 30 or 40 years.. Of course I didn't have a top or bottom board made yet, so that was next. The bottom board is not screened as it was a quickie. Naturally this happened the day my #8 screen arrived at the hardware store. The top is temporary and is just a inner cover & an empty deep on top with a couple of 1qt. feeders inside. This time I just pulled the some of the center frames out and I dumped them in the hive and waited to see what happened.

 In about 30 minutes there were still lots of bees outside the box. I saw a clump of bees on the sheet in front of the hive and am pretty sure I saw the queen. I picked her up & she flew out of my hand, to return shortly & land on the frame I set on the ground for them to use as a ladder. She went in & everyone soon followed. This is the first time I've seen one of my queens! Now I have four hives! & of course the two in the buildings. I hope the barn hive doesn't swarm right away, I‘m way not ready. Last year it was a really big swarm, maybe too big for my 5 frame nuc?

The barn bees I missed,  maybe 12' up.

                                            Later, we went through the over-wintered hive.

                                            

It was in good shape with lots of bees and no sign of queen cells. I scrapped off a lot of burr comb.

 We found the queen, in the second to the last frame in the bottom deep. I think they know you are coming and the survival instinct kicks in & they run away. At least it seems that way. Plenty of honey & the workers were cleaning up the super of drawn comb we added last week. They hadn't drawn out comb on the five new frames of foundation we replaced in the bottom deep. It replaced some old black, crappy comb and frames. I'm wondering if I should switch the bottom deep with the top. This is the hive we were given last August that wasn't supposed to have any bees in it. It did, as well as about the same number of ants. I am kind of surprised they survived the winter. They had very little honey & a small population. I didn't know any better and didn't have feeders much less even know how to mix the sugar-water, so I just dumped several pounds of sugar on the inner cover. Evidently it was enough. Ignorance is bliss as they say. Which brings up the fact that the internet has been out since about 10:00am today and I never noticed it. Bliss I tell you! It's been an exciting two days.